{"id":33279,"date":"2019-02-26T09:23:32","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T09:23:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=33279"},"modified":"2019-02-26T09:23:32","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T09:23:32","slug":"india-vs-pakistan-military-strength-and-arsenal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=33279","title":{"rendered":"India vs Pakistan: Military strength and arsenal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

India has carried out air raids<\/a> on rebel camps inside Pakistan weeks after a suicide attack<\/a> in the disputed Kashmir region, raising fears of a war between the nuclear-armed South Asian nations.<\/p>\n

At least 42 Indian paramilitary personnel were killed in the attack claimed by Pakistan-based rebel group, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM).<\/p>\n

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u00a0vowed a strong response<\/a>\u00a0in the wake of the worst attack on soldiers in decades.<\/p>\n

Pakistan downplayed Tuesday’s incident, saying Indian aircraft violated Pakistani airspace and that Indian jets “released a payload” hastily in a forest area after crossing the Line of Control, the de facto border that divides Indian- and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.<\/p>\n

The regional rivals have gone to war\u00a0twice<\/span> over Kashmir since independence in 1947 from Britain.<\/p>\n

Here is how their militaries stack up.<\/p>\n

Military budget<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In 2018, India allocated four trillion rupees ($58bn), or 2.1 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP), to support its 1.4 million active troops, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).<\/p>\n

Last year, Pakistan spent 1.26 trillion Pakistani rupees ($11bn), about 3.6 percent of its GDP, on its 653,800 troops. It also received $100m in foreign military assistance in 2018.<\/p>\n

Between 1993 and 2006, more than 20 percent of Pakistan’s annual government expenditure was spent on the military, according to estimates from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).<\/p>\n

The military accounted for 16.7 percent of government spending in 2017, it said.<\/p>\n

By comparison, India’s military spending as a percentage of its government expenditure remained under 12 percent during the same period, according to SIPRI. It was 9.1 percent in 2017.<\/p>\n

Missiles and nuclear weapons\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Both nations have ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n

India has nine types of operational missiles, including the Agni-3 with a range of 3,000km to 5,000km, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington.<\/p>\n

Pakistan’s missile programme, built with Chinese assistance, includes mobile short- and medium-range weapons that can reach any part of India, CSIS said. The Shaheen 2 has the longest range, up to 2,000km.<\/p>\n

In 2011, Pakistan confirmed that it had acquired tactical nuclear weapon capability<\/a>, wherein smaller nuclear warheads are attached to short-range missiles (50-100km) as a deterrent against relatively small-scale conventional Indian attacks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The addition of tactical nuclear weapons to Pakistan’s arsenal lowers the threshold for nuclear weapon use, giving Pakistan what its military terms “full spectrum deterrence” against India’s conventional forces.<\/p>\n

The weapons were developed to counter India’s “Cold Start” doctrine, which envisions a shallow incursion into Pakistani territory without breaching its previous nuclear threshold.<\/p>\n

Pakistan has 140 to 150 nuclear warheads, compared with India’s 130-140 warheads, according to SIPRI.<\/p>\n

Army<\/strong><\/h2>\n

India has a 1.2 million-strong army, supported by more than 3,565 battle tanks, 3,100 infantry fighting vehicles, 336 armoured personnel carriers and 9,719 pieces of artillery, according to IISS.<\/p>\n

Pakistan’s army is smaller, with 560,000 troops backed by 2,496 tanks, 1,605 armoured personnel carriers, and 4,472 artillery guns, including 375 self-propelled howitzers.<\/p>\n

Despite its larger army, the capability of India’s “conventional forces is limited by inadequate logistics, maintenance and shortages of ammunition and spare parts”, IISS said in a report this month.<\/p>\n

Air Force<\/strong><\/h2>\n

With 127,200 personnel and 814 combat aircraft, India’s air force is substantially larger but there are concerns about its fighter jet fleet.<\/p>\n

India’s defence plans require 42 squadrons of jets, about 750 aircraft, to defend against a two-pronged attack from China and Pakistan.<\/p>\n

With older Russian jets like the MiG-21, first used in the 1960s, retiring soon, India could have 22 squadrons by 2032, officials say.<\/p>\n

Pakistan has 425 combat aircraft, including the Chinese-origin F-7PG and American F-16 Fighting Falcon jets.<\/p>\n

It also has seven airborne early warning and control aircraft, three more than India, IISS said.<\/p>\n

“The (Pakistan) air force is modernising its inventory while improving its precision-strike and ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) capabilities,” IISS said in its 2019 assessment.<\/p>\n

Navy\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

India’s navy consists of one aircraft carrier, 16 submarines, 14 destroyers, 13 frigates, 106 patrol and coastal combatant vessels, and 75 combat-capable aircraft.<\/p>\n

It has 67,700 personnel, including marines and naval aviation staff.<\/p>\n

Pakistan, which has a significantly smaller coastline, has 9 frigates, 8 submarines, 17 patrol and coastal vessels, and 8 combat-capable aircraft.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

India has carried out air raids on rebel camps inside Pakistan weeks after a suicide attack in the disputed Kashmir region, raising fears of a war between the nuclear-armed South Asian nations. At least 42 Indian paramilitary personnel were killed in the attack claimed by Pakistan-based rebel group, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM). Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u00a0vowed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":33280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}